


Next Time

by Yaxis



Category: Callisto 6 (Web Series)
Genre: CallistoFics, F/F, GraffitiPunk, spoilers for 2x08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 06:44:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18047543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yaxis/pseuds/Yaxis
Summary: Five times Luma Orsini watches Cass die and one time she didn't. (Spoilers for 2x08).





	Next Time

Measure Z has passed, the people of Los Angeles are being roused from complacency, the Callisto Six are whispered about as beacons of a hopeful new future. They’re superheroes and they’re able to help people in ways they never have been able to before.

Los Angeles can do better and it is.

That whispered promise of what the city could be is just within all of their grasps, as long as they just keep doing their part to help push towards it. Even when Anika Patel reveals that the weight of the world rests on their choices, they keep pushing. If they can picture it and work towards it, they can do it. It’s the mantra of the base, together and alone.

Luma finds herself at Cass’s bedroom door in the days following the discovery of Dr. Patel, the future, their past, what has been, what might be, and what will be. They’ve tried and failed at least three times, but that doesn’t mean that this has to be the fourth failure in that line. Still, that whisper of doubt creeps into the back of her mind when she’s faced with the silence and stillness of the base on her own.

It could be another failure and if it is--

“Hey, uh, what’s up?”

When she thinks of Hawk, she finds herself wishing that they had had more time. She thinks of the last time she turned down an offer to spend time with him because there would always be another. There had been jokes that would slip by because she sometimes got distracted by her own thoughts when he spoke. There had been missed meals that she could’ve shared with him, missed chances to tease him and joke, missed kisses she could have placed on his cheeks and head and lips.

“I don’t want to miss out on time.” Luma says after the moment stretches on with Cass’s brow furrowing in concern. “With us, I mean. If that’s something that you want too.”

There’s a beat with the words hanging in the air. And then Cass is stepping closer, their bodies shifting to accomodate each other closer. Luma’s hands come up to cup Cass’s face, Cass’s hands settle on Luma’s hips, and all she can do is give herself over to the moment.

Luma clings to that memory, mouth open in a scream as Oya sends her away with a crack of lavender energy and rippling of time and space around her. There’s just a moment before she’s gone, but it’s long enough to watch Fletcher’s wrap his unnervingly human hands around Lacy’s and Cass’s throats to crush the life from their struggling forms.

‘Next time,’ she thinks in that familiar alleyway some time later with a canister tightly in her hands, ‘We’ll get it next time.’

\-----------------------------

She pictures him as a giant of a being, unearthly and unknowable. In reality, he comes to them in a form too familiar for anyone’s tastes but they believe so strongly that they’re ready for him. No matter what has happened in other timelines, this will be the time that they stop him from ripping apart the world that they all love.

He steps onto the docks of Raft City with an aura of salting the earth with every move forward. They do their best and they fight as they know they’ve done before, but his very touch is a disease in a way that Jerome Blare could only dream of in his wildest fantasies. One point of contact and they aren’t quite so super anymore.

Lacy, Hopps, and Anton’s bodies float by the docks. They aren’t alone in the water.

Oya desperately speaks to her. She knows that Oya’s right but still fights and pushes against her, desperate to get to where Cass is struggling with her head being held underwater. In the end, Fletcher slowly looks up towards her with a sickeningly pleasant smile just as Oya’s abilities rip their owner apart to send Luma back for another chance.

Cass’s struggles fall limp as the world jumps away.

Why didn’t she tell her? Why didn’t she tell her how much she meant? Why didn’t she kiss her? Why didn’t she--

\-----------------------------

Fletcher breathes cruelty.

His eyes gleam when he looks at her as though reveling in every shatter of her soul. He knows, knows that Oya is going to send Luma back. It’s happened before, it might happen again if they can’t get it right. It’s worse than just that though. He knows what she hasn’t said somehow, what she hasn’t done in this timeline that she’s done in other.

“Do you know, Cassie?” He keeps his foot planted in the center of Cass’s chest to keep her pinned to the ground. Fingers scrabble around his ankle, pushing and shoving and clawing in the pursuit of freedom. He presses down slowly, a choked cry of paint dying in the blood bubbling from Cass’s lips. “Do you know how she feels?”

Oya drags her back and away and away and away, but Luma can feel cold rising to burn the center of her chest in realization of what he’s going to say.

“Do you know what she’s been too weak to say in this timeline?” Fletcher’s lips curl into a broader smile. The yellow street lights of Los Angeles dance in his eyes. His boot digs deeper with the steady snapping of bone under his force. “Do you have any idea how much you’ve missed out on? Together? Because of her?”

Luma snaps out of existence.

\-----------------------------

“Cass! Wait, okay, just--just wait!”

“Luma, go!”

“I--”

“Go!”

Fletcher rips the energy from Cass’s body with just a touch but it doesn’t stop her from decking him in the face. Cass launches herself at him, determined to keep Oya and Luma safe long enough to get away. She’s small and raging, a bright flurry of pastel hair and flying fists that leave her knuckles bloodied on impact.

Oya pulls her away and Luma can feel her shudder as Anton draws his last breath nearby. His hand is mere inches from Hopps. Their connections to each other, so strong and omnipresent, feels like peeling flesh from their bones when they sever. It’s like losing the ability to breathe properly.

She wonders if it’s always Oya who yanks her away. It must be. It always comes down to the two of them.

Hot fear floods her veins and she knows that Oya feels it too from the reflexive tightening of her grip. It doesn’t belong to them, they both know it.

Fletcher shoves Cass against the nearby pristine walls of Pyramid Star’s headquarters. He holds her there, placing his fingertips over her heart as she kicks and shoves against him. His fingers press into her skin. In, in, in. The flesh yields under his persistence with glossy blood spilling out over pale flesh. Her hands grasp his wrist in weak desperation to force him away but there’s nothing to be done.

Oya’s abilities crackle to life but not before Luma can feel it in her chest too: a hand grasping her heart and squeezing.

\-----------------------------

Cass slams her fists into Fletcher’s chest.

His body cracks against the brick wall opposite of them.

So close, Luma knows it this time, they’re just so close. They’ve heard that previously Fletcher’s been able to steal the Callisto energy away from them and rob them of their abilities just on contact. That doesn’t seem to be the case this time around. She can almost see it, a future on the other side of this whole Fletcher apocalypse.

For a while, they clash against Fletcher until he gets his hands on Lacy.

It’s downhill from there.

Lacy’s first, quick and efficient out of necessity. Having technology working against him on a mass scale was simply unsustainable. Getting his hands on Lacy first to rid himself of the problem was crucial. Hopps was next and far less kind. The staff so lovingly created for her by Lacy was skewered through her chest. Anton fell next. A body, even his, could only be subjected to so much punishment and brutality.

Cass would fall, rise, and fall again. Time and again, she dragged herself back to her feet to face Fletcher head on. Her fists clashed against Fletcher’s body and, god, he showed signs of being affected. She’s flung against the wall again but Fletcher goes to retrieve Hopps’s staff from her body.

Cass struggles this time, rising to her knees weakly. Fletcher flips the staff in his hands, walking with his mouth pressed into a thin line as he stares down at her. The staff comes down against Cass’s spine, flattening her against the ground again. And then again. And again.

The sound of the staff beating against Cass’s form tears through the air. Luma can feel each impact as though its her, reaching out towards Cass as Oya realizes that it’s a lost cause.

Luma disappears.

\-----------------------------

They change enough variables.

Luma stands by the largest window in Blue Dolphin Base. Nothing has changed, but they’ve changed everything what will be. Would be. The future sits open before them, uncertain but filled to the brim with possibilities. They can help the people of their city to try to shape things to be better down the line.

They’re alive, all of them.

Somehow.

Luma presses her forehead against the cool glass and closes her eyes. The weariness settles in her bones. It would be so nice to just curl up and sleep for a month or so. Just quiet and calm on her family’s boat, the water lapping against the hull, and the scent of her mother’s cooking. Sophia would be cooing at their dad in the background. Luca and Marco would be chattering about something or other.

And Cass--

“You okay?”

She opens her eyes and turns her head. Cass stands behind her, an oversized tank top hanging off of her shoulders. Her bright hair is dishevelved, the spikes points off every which way. Her cheek is dark with lingering bruises, knuckles rough with scabbing cuts.

Luma reaches out for her hand which Cass willingly gives.

“Do you wanna come back to my family’s boat with me tomorrow? Have dinner with me?” Luma’s not quite sure why the words come so suddenly but her cheeks flush with the crooked smile Cass answers her with.

“Of course. Gotta get to know Luca and Marco better now that we have some time. Lazer Hawk is a killer name.” Cass grins, gently leads Luma into her arms by their connected hands. Luma nuzzles into her, the tension slowly easing from her muscles for the first time that night.

They had time now. Together.


End file.
